Cover not available

In:Metaphor in Specialist Discourse:
Edited by J. Berenike Herrmann and Tony Berber Sardinha
[Metaphor in Language, Cognition, and Communication 4] 2015
► pp. 215–242

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Dynamical systems metaphors

Published online: 16 December 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/milcc.4.09smi
In order to explore the role that ‘dynamical systems theory’ plays as an overarching conceptual source domain in the genre of educational scientific texts covering six distinct subject areas (cognitive psychology, linguistics, transportation studies, social psychology, evolutionary biology and business management), I examined the lower-level metaphors underlying this complex source domain. Corpus analyses of professional education literature revealed underlying metaphors of force dynamics, movement, object manipulation, and personification. Novel metaphors or novel extensions of conventional metaphors were few. Findings document a proliferation of extensions and elaborations of conventional metaphor groupings. The identified conceptual metaphors were linked by (a) lexical co-occurrences and (b) metaphoric implications not lexically expressed. Figurative context appears to aid the learner’s understanding, although some metaphors and combinations confound explanations of key aspects of dynamical systems. Suggestions are made that could enhance the overall pedagogical usefulness of the metaphors found.
References (34)
References
Abraham, R. (2009). Recent progress in dynamical systems theory. Retrieved 5 January 2011 from [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aubin, D., & Dalmedico, A.D. (2002). Writing the history of dynamical systems and chaos: Longue durée and revolution, disciplines and cultures. Historia Mathematica, 29(3), 273–339. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, T.L. (2003). Making truth: Metaphor in science. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, L. (2003). Metaphor in educational discourse. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, L., & Deignan, A. (2006). The emergence of metaphor in discourse. Applied Linguistics, 27(4), 671–690. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Capra, F. (1996). The web of life: A new scientific understanding of living systems. New York: Anchor Books/Random House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carstensen, A., Tibell, L., & Bernhard, J. (2003). Real models in modelled reality: epistemic confusion when communicating science? Paper submitted to the European Science Education Research Association Conference , August 2003. Retrieved July 2007 from [URL].
Charteris-Black, J. (2004). Corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2005). Politicians and rhetoric: The persuasive power of metaphor. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eubanks, P. (2000). The war of words in the discourse of trade: The rhetorical constitution of metaphor. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Forceville, C. (2008). Metaphor in pictures and multimodal representations. In R.W. Gibbs (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (pp. 262–282). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fauconnier, G., & Turner, M. (2002). The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fernandez-Duque, D., & Johnson, M. (1999). Attention metaphors: How metaphors guide the cognitive psychology of attention. Cognitive Science, 23(1), 83–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, R.W. (2006). Embodiment and cognitive science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giles, T.D. (2008). Motives for metaphor in scientific and technical communication. Amityville, New York: Baywood Publishing Co. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goatly, A. (2002). Conflicting metaphors in the Hong Kong special administrative region educational reform proposals. Metaphor and Symbol, 17(4), 263–294. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goschler, J. (2007). Metaphors in cognitive and neurosciences. Which impact have metaphors on scientific theories and models? Metaphorik.de, 12, 1–20.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grady, J.E. (1997). Foundations of meaning: Primary metaphors and primary scenes. PhD Dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, Department of Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grady, J.E., Oakley, T., & Coulson, S. (1999). Blending and metaphor. In G. Steen & R.W. Gibbs (Eds.), Metaphor in cognitive linguistics. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holmes, P. (2007). History of dynamical systems. Scholarpedia, 2(5), 1843. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kövecses, Z. (2002). Metaphor: A practical introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (2nd ed.) (pp. 202–251). New York, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Musolff, A. (2004). Metaphor and political discourse: Analogical reasoning in debates about Europe. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ortony, A. (1993). Metaphor and thought (2nd ed.). New York, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pragglejaz group (2007). MIP: A method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 22(1), 1–39. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Semino, E. (2008). Metaphor in discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Slingerland, R., & Kump, L. (2011). Mathematical modeling of earth’s dynamical systems: A primer. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, T.H. (2009). When experts educate, what do their metaphors say? Complex metaphor structure in the professional conflict resolution literature. Ibérica. Journal of the European Association of Languages for Specific Purposes (special issue on metaphor and LSP), 17, 175–196.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sticht, T.G. (1993). Educational uses of metaphor, in A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (2nd ed.) (pp. 621–632). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steinhart, E. (2001). The logic of metaphor – Analogous parts of possible worlds. (Synthese Library, Volume 299). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Beger, Anke & Thomas H. Smith
2020. Introduction. In How Metaphors Guide, Teach and Popularize Science [Figurative Thought and Language, 6], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Smith, Thomas H.
2020. Three metaphors in social science. In How Metaphors Guide, Teach and Popularize Science [Figurative Thought and Language, 6], ► pp. 211 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue